Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Last Blooms with a Foliage Follow-up

While Carol at May Dreams Garden keeps us on focus about the blooms in our garden all year long I am afraid that these are the last of the blooms in my garden. While there has been an Indian Summer here I managed to get the front door painted.  It is a color of foliage which Pam likes for us to show the day after Bloom Day.
 While we don't have so many blooms in the garden we do have foliage.  The boxwood by the front porch is always green. I like to think it is a nice welcome to our home.  The Akebia vine that insists on twirling around the rail will stay green until it gets really cold and stays cold. It is protected by the porch overhang. Yes, those are some holly berries and no I don't remember which holly. Obviously it is decidious.  No matter because the berries are so striking and the birds leave them until the last to eat.
 The pyracantha has that deep green of the cold months and there are plenty of berries to keep the Mockingbird happy for a long while.  That is if he can keep the Cardinals out of them.
 We have had a bit of moisture lately so a few of the bittersweet berries have shown themselves. The foliage on this vine is somewhat protected by the Locust tree nearby so it stays green until all the leaves are down from the Locust. If there is another frost the berries will be exposed.
 The berries on the False Bamboo is rarely bothered by the birds. It must be because there are other more palatable berries available.  I had read that birds like them. Maybe one will get brave some day and taste one.
 The foliage on the Oak leaf hydrangea is still colorful and beautiful. The other hydrangeas foliage are all but lost.
 I have read time and again that Burning bushes have fallen out of favor but at this time of year a person would be hard pressed to rip one out. It is so striking with those leaves aflame.
 My two favorite viburnams are still gorgeous.  The one on the right will lose its deep plum colored leaves this winter but the one on the right, Leatherleaf, will keep those leaves all winter.
I will leave you with a look at my window box as it appears now decked out in its fall finery. I hope you have that warm glow of fall in your sights. 

24 comments:

  1. I love the angle of the first shot. You are right about having evergreens near the front entrance. I was thinking about replacing a tired hedge along the front of our house with Knockout roses. I'm glad I didn't do that because they would be ugly during the winter.

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  2. Blooms? Ha, ha, ha ha ... snow up here and ice.

    Enjoying looking at yours though!

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  3. I am such a foliage lover !!! Thanks for showing all of your beauties!!! Love your window box!

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  4. Ooh, I love all your berries, Lisa! The birds must know you've hung a welcome sign on your front door for the winter. I just saw a holly recommended on the Proven Winners' site called 'Castle Spire' that looked intriguing. I think it might even be an evergreen; I've put it on my list of possible shrubs for the new bed. It did warn the berries were toxic to pets; do you have any trouble with Luna bothering them? Sophie will eat about anything, but I've never seen her interested in berries on any plant.

    Love your window box--very festive!

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  5. You have a great selection of berrying plants and fall color, Lisa. I especially love the burning bush (so exotic for a southerner) and that purple-hued viburnum. Your leafy front door color looks pretty too.

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  6. Marvelous show of Fall color, Lisa. Love the berries, especially Pyracantha.

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  7. I'm buried in snow ~ and now I'm anxiously waiting on spring!! I love your fall window arrangement. Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Hi Lisa, firstly love the window box, what a stunning display. Your artistic skills showing again.

    The front door is perfect Lisa, and the boxwood add to it. What a wonderful entrance to your home.

    How could the Burning bush be out of favour. The colour is wonderful and surely a bonus to any autumn garden....hope you keep yours.

    Tks for sharing your garden with us, despite your lack of rain, it is still very beautiful.

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  9. I love that last shot of your window box... so nicely structured, but casual.

    And that deciduous holly with its red berries by the front door is certainly a nice welcome, for the birds and for the people!

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  10. The berries are so pretty and add so much to your garden. That's what's missing from mine, although how long they'd last is open to question.

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  11. Your post has me thinking red is the color of finales. Your post has me thinking.

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  12. These blossoms are gorgeous. I especially enjoyed the view of the bittersweet. There hasn't been much of it around here this year. So thanks.

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  13. Someday, my oakleaf hydrangea will come. And survive. Tried and killed it a few times but I am stubborn. So I guess I'll try yet again.

    I must be the only person in the world who has killed off a burning bush. They're kind of borderline here and we have so few natural fall reds in the landscape I can't help but want something like this bush. I suppose I'll have to content myself with the hardy blueberry bushes....

    Christine in Alaska, no red bushes

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  14. Lisa, The windowbox is such a festive sight~I need more evergreens for sure and I've read that having a yew by the door is a good thing! I wonder if a juniper would work as well;) gail

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  15. Lisa, your pink Mum is enhances your newly painted front door beautifully.
    You have such a lovely collection of berried shrubs. Wish our 2 bittersweets would produce berries. Do you have more than one plant? I recently read that a male and female are needed so am thinking ours are probably both the same gender.
    Sure would love an Oakleaf Hydrangea like yours. It's beautiful.

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  16. Foliage play an important part in the design of a garden. Especially in autumn (colour!) and winter (if the plant is wintergreen) they are the protagonists....as you show in your autumnal pictures. Your window box looks great!

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  17. It looks beautiful there Lisa. I love your arrangement at the end. So nice. I didn't make bloom day and I'm sorry for it. Just too busy this week. Happy Thanksgiving.~~Dee

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  18. Lisa girl : ) hey your last blooms are very pretty .. I love seeing red berries this time of year especially. I have had a name change and address change on my blog and I just wanted to let you know in case you wondered where I am hiding? hehe .. it is
    http://canadiangardenjoy.blogspot.com/ now Have a great Thanksgiving girl !

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  19. Oh my, your window box looks so gorgeous! Will the birds come to it and eat the berries? I put suet in my window boxes every winter with pine boughs and the little birds come right up to the windows.
    I still have marigolds and a few mums. No hard frost here yet....
    Your front door looks so pretty and inviting.
    Sherry

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  20. Love your red berries. Sure wish I could grow Burning Bush here. We had one when I was a kid. Can't imagine it being on the invasive list.
    Love your window box. I hope you don't mind if I borrow some of your ideas as I have 2 of them on the front of my shed.

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  21. I was just thinking I had missed a post by you when your comment came in, Lisa, and I bounced right back here to see you. I have pyracantha envy...it wasn't reliably hardy here, at least not where I had planted it, but seeing yours tempts me to try again...

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  22. Your window box is gorgeous — and even more wonderful is that all that beauty is from your garden. I wonder if I could grow Pyracantha? It sure is dramatic.

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  23. This is a lovely post, Thank you Lisa!

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  24. The window box is not just functional but tryly a beauty that strike my first attention!
    Thanks, I am dreaming to have one...and thinking too!

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